Cell Phone Hits! – Daily Phone Buzz

Looks like Motorola is pouring some real resources into getting an Android mobile phone out into the market. They are in the process of expanding its current 50-man Android development team into a head count of about 350. The company is one of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance. That is a huge commitment that shows how big a bet Motorola is making on Android. T-Mobile will start selling the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC, on October 22. But the plan was never about just one Google phone, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement last fall. “Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.” Thus, the Open Handset Alliance–a group of big players in the wireless industry charged with helping form the development community for Android devices.

TechCrunch reported that the same source spotted Nokia and Verizon people at an Android developer conference not long ago, though neither company is listed as a member of the Open Handset Alliance. However, now that Nokia completely owns Symbian, they don’t have to pay anyone licensing fees (that’s one of the advantages of open platforms), so any Android-based phones they plan won’t take priority over the Symbian-based.